Saturday, 6 October 2012

Corruption in China "goes right to the top"

The leaders of China's Communist Party are nothing but bunch of corrupted thugs

For years apologists for the Chinese communist government have been spreading the myth that massive corruption in China is only a local problem and that the people at the top are squeaky-clean and unselfish managers of the common good. The Bo Xilai scandal has put an end to that kind of propaganda:

From revelations of massive corruption to the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Mr Bo’s wife Gu Kailai, the sordid affair has shown the Chinese people and the world that the rot goes right to the top.

For the last three decades, the party has carefully cultivated the perception that, while there may be corruption and wrongdoing at lower levels, the system is governed by clean and selfless elites who live only to serve the masses.

China’s spectacular rise and its success in lifting hundreds of millions out of abject poverty combined with the intense secrecy surrounding senior officials have convinced many to accept this vision of a just and benevolent emperor calling the shots from Beijing….

When historians look back on the Bo Xilai scandal they will almost certainly identify this as the moment when China’s vicious backroom political battles spilled into the open and the myth of the good emperor was shattered.

Far from revealing authoritarian China’s meritocracy and ability to self-correct, the Bo Xilai saga underscores how its leaders believe they are above the law and how little accountability there actually is.

There is plenty of corruption to go around in China, and it is not confined to local officials. It’s those at the top whose kids drive Ferraris and who own homes in the US and who funnel large quantities of cash out of China. The Bo Xilai scandal simply makes it more obvious. It pulls the curtain on a topic the CCP wants to keep removed from public discourse and exposes the good/bad argument as total hogwash. The government never wanted the story to gain public attention; as the reporter says, “Chinese, British and US officials say privately that without the involvement of foreign governments Heywood’s murder would probably never have been uncovered and Mr Bo would still be a frontrunner for promotion when the party anoints new leaders at a once-a-decade conclave next month.” So don’t go arguing that the fact that we know so much about the scandal is due to transparency on the part of the powers that be. I agree with the article’s conclusion, that there are plenty of officials at the top who are no different than Bo Xilai when it comes to corruption and amassing illegal fortunes.